Thermomechanical processing of spray-formed CuCrZr alloy

Abstract

Alloys based on Cu-Cr and Cu-Zr have been developed during recent years for high strength, high conductivity applications. Ternary Cu-Cr-Zr alloys containing about 0.6 - 0.8 at% Cr and about 0.1 at% Zr have been shown to possess the best strength after age hardening without many of the embrittlement problems associated with binary Cu-Cr alloys. More recently, significant effort devoted to examining the influence of rapid solidification techniques has shown that large increases in solubility can be achieved, for example of Cr from near 1 at% to 2-3 at%, and of Zr from about 0.1 at% to about 0.3 at%, by the use of rapid solidification and rapid quenching. Some of the best properties are obtained after suitable ageing of such rapidly solidified ternary Cu-Cr-Zr alloys. The present study considers the microstructure and properties of a Cu-Cr-Zr alloy prepared by spray deposition techniques which allow the preparation of bulk material by a rapid solidification and slow cooling method. Considerable improvements in properties are shown to be possible by specific combinations of thermal and mechanical processing of this material.